"I shall never leave this house alive, Mr. Mallow. My days are numbered. You can guess now that the reading of Carson's statement gave me a severe shock. All these years, I never suspected that it was Bellairs who murdered Singha. Indeed, I did not even know that he was murdered, for Rao Chunder, the heir, gave out that his father had died of apoplexy."
"Did you never return to Kikat?"
"No; I failed altogether to induce the Governor-General to move in the matter of the blackmailing, and, as the Rao's son was not very friendly to me I judged it wiser to keep away. Besides, I heard that Bellairs and Carson had left Kikat, and believed that their departure was due to the enmity of the new Rao. God forgive me, I never guessed the truth."
"Rao Singha never told you that Bellairs and Carson were inculpated in the blackmailing?"
"No. Trall made it out to be his own conspiracy, entirely, and kept their names out of his confession. Moreover, Singha had not received the incriminating letters with the forged names. They were afterwards burnt by the new Rao. He kept his own counsel. I never saw them; I never suspected that Bellairs and Carson had fallen so low."
"Do you think the names were forged, or do you believe that your friends were willing accomplices in the conspiracy?"
"I believe the names were forged," declared Brock decisively. "So far as I knew, both Bellairs and Carson were thoroughly honourable men. Trall entangled them by means of the forgeries, and, for their own sakes, they were compelled to act as accomplices."
"Did Bellairs ever hint at the truth?"
"Mr. Mallow,"--the vicar sat up and flushed indignantly--"had I been told the truth by Bellairs, do you think that I would have remained Vicar of Casterwell? No! For Olive's sake, perhaps I might have held my tongue but my first act would have been to vacate the living. Bellairs was as silent as the grave about Kikat. He hardly ever alluded to his life there, and then only casually."
"Guilty conscience, no doubt," suggested Mallow. "As a rule, a man doesn't particularly care to reperuse the smudged pages of his life-book. I suppose Bellairs never told you his reason for the betrothal of Olive to Angus?"